Space News

• Chandra: The Mission
  
• First Female in Charge
  

• Happy 30th Moon Landing Anniversary!
  
• Pete Conrad dies
• Alan Shepard dies

• International Space Station Launched
  

Planets:

• Martian Face Not Martian
  
• Demoted?
  
• Bye Bye Rings
  
• New Info on Saturn

       Pluto, the smallest planet in our solar system, may not be a planet for long. If the International Astronomical Union has its way, Pluto will be reclassified as a minor planet or a trans-Neptunian object.
       Since its discovery in 1930, Pluto has been like no other planet. It is smaller than seven moons in the solar system, including ours. And while all the other planets travel in near circular orbits, Pluto has an elliptical, or oval, shaped orbit that brings it closer to the sun than Neptune on occassion.
       Besides its size and orbit, Pluto's composition is different from all the other planets. While Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are all rocky and Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are gassy, Pluto is believed to be covered with frozen methane gas with temperatures ranging from -387 degrees Fahrenheit to -369 degress Fahrenheit (-233 degrees Celsius to -223 degrees Celsius).
       If reclassified as a minor planet, Pluto would join about 10,000 other minor planets. If reclassified as a trans-Neptunian object, Pluto would become one of many icy asteroids found in the Kuyper Belt near Neptune.